A society that begins to excuse political violence should not be surprised when political violence multiplies.

Once you create a moral framework in which violence is not merely understandable but righteous — once you argue that certain institutions are so corrupt, so "murderous," that the people who participate in them deserve to be killed — you are no longer condemning violence. You are licensing it.

And when that cultural permission structure meets a criminal justice system increasingly designed to favor perpetrators over victims, the results are predictable: more criminals walking free, more public cynicism and more people tempted to believe that vigilantism is the only remaining form of accountability.

Consider the case of Luigi Mangione, accused of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. A New York judge ruled this week that while the murder weapon will be admissible at trial, several other pieces of evidence seized during Mangione's arrest will be suppressed.

The admissible items include a gun, a 3D-printed silencer and a red notebook reportedly filled with incriminating writing. But the judge excluded other evidence found in Mangione's backpack: his phone, passport, gun magazine, wallet and a........

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